NEWS ANALYSIS

Now Obama is throwing 'Granny off a cliff'

Plans to shut down government but blame Republicans

Garth Kant is WND Washington news editor. Previously, he spent five years writing, copy-editing and producing at "CNN Headline News," three years writing, copy-editing and training writers at MSNBC, and also served several local TV newsrooms as producer, executive producer and assistant news director. His most recent book is "Capitol Crime: Washington's cover-up of the Killing of Miriam Carey." He also is the author of the McGraw-Hill textbook, "How to Write Television News."

The White House budget strategy to avoid spending cuts likely will be to shut down the government, according to the Washington Post.

Why?

One sentence tells the whole story: “The White House is likely to frame any government shutdown as a consequence of Republicans protecting the wealthy at the expense of the nation’s economy and poor.”

In other words, President Obama believes he can cause a government shutdown and make Republicans take the blame.

It would not be the first time Democrats have accused the GOP of hurting the poor in an effort to increase spending.

In fact, conservatives have long charged it is the No. 1 tactic in the liberal playbook, often citing a political ad claiming the GOP wanted to push “Granny off the cliff.”

That was the graphic charge liberals made when Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Minn., proposed to help save Medicare in 2012 “by giving beneficiaries a set amount of money every year to buy coverage from competing health plans,” as described by Kaiser Health News.

Also in March, Sadhbh Walshe asked in the Guardian, “How long will voters let Republicans put the rich before everyone else?” She defined reduced spending as shifting “the entire burden … onto the poorest and neediest in our society, while doing everything … to protect the pocket books of the wealthy.”

Self-described “Christian leader for social change” Jim Wallis wrote in the Huffington Post in 2012, “we must conclude that the Republican budget is an immoral document – in the way it treats the poor.”

In 2012, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post called Ryan’s plan “[H]elping the poor by hurting them” and explained how it which “slashes the safety net to pay for tax cuts mostly for wealthy Americans.”

And, at the Democratic National Convention in 2012, former President Clinton told the world, “Republicans will hurt poor kids with autism.”

It’s a matter of debate whether Democrats really believe Republicans are so mean-spirited and callous, but there can be little denying liberals see vilification of conservatives as an extremely effective political tool.

It may explain why Obama believes he could pursue a strategy of shutting down the government and successfully pin the blame on Republicans to wring concessions from them.

He knows it has happened before.

Republicans were blamed for the government shutdown in 1995-96, even though it was President Clinton who refused to sign a spending bill passed by a GOP-controlled Congress.

Obama has already begun testing the waters, saying in a speech in Jacksonville, Fla., on Thursday,”Shutting down the government just because I’m for keeping it open, that’s not an economic plan.”

“Threatening that you won’t pay the bills in this country when we’ve already racked up those bills, that’s not an economic plan. That’s just being a deadbeat,” he added.

The president was reacting to news of a Republican plan to try to defund Obamacare.

As WND reported in detail Thursday, it is a politically risky plan precisely because Republicans are aware the president will try to accuse them of causing a government shutdown.

The strategy pushed in the Senate by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and in the House by Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., would use the House’s constitutional power of the purse to cut off funding for the Affordable Healthcare Act before it goes into full effect Jan. 1, 2014.

GOP lawmakers would do that by refusing to fund any spending measures that provide funding for the implementation of Obamacare.

That would leave them open to Democrats’ accusation of holding the budget hostage – and risking a government shutdown – to scuttle the health care law.

The Republicans’ strategy to counter that is to approve a series of bills funding all government services except the health care law.

GOP lawmakers hope passing all the bills needed to keep the government running would prevent Democrats from successfully accusing Republicans of pushing for a government shutdown over Obamacare.

The idea is that would put the burden on the Democrats to keep the government running and force a showdown in which GOP lawmakers could essentially tell them, “Take it or leave it.”

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are widely thought to be wary of taking blame for shutting down the government.

In order to provide momentum for the plan to defund Obamacare, Lee has launched a grass-roots petition drive, and he knows what he’s up against.

In his letter urging people to sign the petition, Leee writes, “We need to send a tidal wave of petitions through Washington in the next few weeks.”

His appeal also seems specifically designed to put pressure on GOP leaders to get on board.

“We have to tell the D.C. “ruling class” the hard, honest truth: If you vote to fund Obamacare, you’re for Obamacare. And if you’re for Obamacare, you’re against the American people. I need your help to get this message across. We need to make these big-government Washington insiders sit up and take notice before it’s too late,” warns Lee.

GOP leaders will be wary of trying to defund Obamcare because taking the blame for a government shutdown could cost them at the polls during 2014 midterm elections.

They also will be trying to keep Democrats from trying to increase spending during budget negotiations.

Congress has been keeping the government running in recent years with stopgap measures known as continuing resolutions, and this year those laws expire on Sept. 30.

President Obama gave three speeches on the economy this week and each time he called for spending increases, which he calls “investments.”

In Jacksonville, Fla., on Thursday the president said, “We know strong infrastructure is a key ingredient to a thriving economy,” but “Unfortunately, over the past few years, too many folks have been cutting these investments in Washington.”

Obama said this despite having already spent $6 trillion since taking office in a largely futile attempt to stimulate the economy.

And, the credibility of the president’s warning about the perils of spending cuts may have taken a significant hit after the sequester went into effect.

He had predicted dire consequences if the $85 billion spending cuts were enacted, but the only negative result most people have heard about was the suspension of White House tours.

Sarah Palin even ridiculed what a small spending cut that was in the big picture, writing on her Facebook page: “If we are going to wet our proverbial pants over 0.3% in annual spending cuts when we’re running up trillion dollar annual deficits, then we’re done. Put a fork in us. We’re finished.”